Principals
S.D. Don Zivkovic
Don Zivkovic, an award-winning, internationally published architect, with a master of architectural history from Columbia University in New York and an undergraduate professional degree from the University of Western Australia, established a practice recognized for its pursuit of quality indesign, which is ultimately based on a respect for the past that is fundamental to keeping the timeless tradition of architecture alive and meaningful today. He is licensed to practice architecture in the US and Australia and his more than 40 years of experience encompass many building and interior design works, including master planning and project management, for a diverse institutional, commercial and residential clientele in the US, Europe and Australasia. From major new building projects to furniture and hardware design, the focus of his firm is on understanding clients’ overall strategies and long-term interests, to ensure a quality of product which is measured in terms of its functional performance and the added-value imparted to projects that are consistently completed at a high standard of finish and within given budget and time parameters.
The owners and end-users of his work number, among others, prominent individuals from the entertainment industry, old-world aristocracy and Wall Street, as well as such important institutions as American Express, International Committee of the Red Cross, Foster’s Group, British Petroleum and West Point Military Academy, for example. The range of his built work comprises new building construction in New York City and its environs, on the one hand; and on the other, a modern embassy in Manhattan for the Government of Botswana; as well as preservation of existing historic fabric on both sides of the Atlantic, including the conversion of a 19th century landmark bank building at Cornhill, in the City of London, England, to accommodate new corporate headquarters and state-of-the-art trading-floor operations; in addition to numerous renovation projects at such New York City landmarks as the Rockefeller Center, MetLife Building and World Financial Center and other locations.
At the same time, he is known for the fine homes, including apartments, townhouses and country residences, designed for a select group of private patrons seeking contemporary comfort and convenience, together with the time-honored and well-proportioned refinement which is characteristic of the enduring architecture of the past, traditional and modern. The new classically-styled Carhart apartment house, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, has been called one of the city’s best buildings of the last half century and a new Palladian-inspired house and landscape in the Hudson Valley is praised as of its time and place, while the rehabilitation of a 30-acre stone-manor estate in Greenwich, Connecticut, was featured in The New York Times as one of the most exclusive private properties in the world.
He is affiliated with the American and Royal Australian Institutes of Architects and the Institute of Classical Architecture. He has also served as President of the New York Chapter of the Society of American Registered Architects and on its national board, in addition to being a Director of the Architects’ Council of New York City. For many years, he chaired the jury of the long-running,
national Student Design competition of the Society of American Registered Architects and, with his partner, sponsored a national Drawing Prize at the Institute of Classical Architecture, which recognizes and fosters the talent of young architects. He has also been a guest critic at schools of architecture in New York. Other probono service has included trusteeships on the Board of the Thomas Paine Museum and National Historical Association, as well as with the Lycee Francais de New York, where he was a leader in the school’s successful design and construction of a new Kindergarten-12th Grade, state-of-the-art facility in Manhattan. He was awarded an historic Order of Chivalry (Chevalier des Palmes Academiques) by the French Government for his leadership in building for education.
Honored by his peers and the community for the excellence of both his modern and traditional designs, together with a strong background in planning and project management, Don Zivkovic brings a unique blend of aesthetic and practical skills to every project. Architectural historians and critics have recognized his work but, ultimately, the cornerstone of his practice is
the making of beautiful places and, as such, buildings are regarded as a community affair which contribute to making the preferred environments in which to live and work.
Brian J. Connolly
Brian Connolly is a graduate of the Architectural Programs at the Institute of Technology and Trinity College, in Dublin, Ireland. Following graduation, he also qualified, with honors, as a Member of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland. He has over 35 years of post-graduate professional experience in the United States and Europe and is a Registered Architect, licensed to practice in the State Of New York from 1992.
With a background in the design and documentation of educational and religious buildings, he joined the firm in 1989 as a project architect and led the design team for the US headquarters of a European bank which had recently acquired a local banking organization with 180 branch offices throughout the north-east. Subsequently, immediate project experience also included law offices, a security-control center for a Fortune 500 company and commercial and trading facilities for other financial corporations in the New York metropolitan area. He has since been responsible for the design of a wide variety of project types including numerous institutional, commercial and residential facilities for a diverse group of clients, ranging from the New York State Power and Port Authorities and the Philosophy Day School, to the Juilliard School and School of American Ballet at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, among others (see Select Client List). His experience with both building and interior projects comprises new construction as well as historic restoration and rehabilitation of existing structures and spaces. And he is further involved in the design and production of custom furnishings, cabinetry and related industrial design products.
He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and Irish Business Organization of New York and has served on the construction industry’s International Building Products Advisory Board for the Irish Government. Other service includes most notably his role as co-founder of the not-for-profit St Brendan the Navigator Restoration & Education Foundation, which was responsible for the restoration of the important 12th-century Hiberno-Romanesque Clonfert Cathedral, in Ireland. He authored the historical report instrumental in bringing the project to the attention of the World Monuments Fund, which featured it on its Millennium List of the world’s 100 Most Endangered Buildings. In recognition of other dedicated service, meanwhile, he was made a Fellow of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America and chaired its Publication Committee which, among other things, is focused on the preservation and reprinting of historical architectural texts and monographs of historically important practitioners.
He is committed, with his partner, to the future of the profession and the encouragement of a respect for the important place of history, craftsmanship and appropriate technique in the practice of architecture. He has contributed, accordingly, to the support and publication of the new, facsimile edition of the classic Le Vaticane et La Basilique de Saint Pierre by Paul Letarouilly, as well as to the establishment, under the auspices of the Institute of Classical Architecture, of the Zivkovic Connolly Drawing Prize for young architects. He has also been invited to serve as a guest juror at architectural schools in the United States and Europe.
Recent architectural work executed by Brian Connolly has been accorded design awards by various architectural and other professional organizations. In recognition of their design excellence, many of these projects have been widely published, in the United States, as well as in other professional and popular publications in Europe and Japan.